Accident - Broken Jaw - Full Face HG Helmet
So when you see the data trends indicated by these reports in the magazine...Ryan Voight - 2010/08/29 00:08:58 UTC
Safest bet is to assume no one else is going to submit one, and just take the two secs to do it yourself. The office is trained to combine multiple reports on the same accident (although getting ONE report is rare enough!)
Doug Hildreth - 1981/04
Just before the first step of your launch run, lift the glider and make certain that the straps become tight when you do so.
...just what is it that you - as a USHGA Director and Instructor - do with them?Doug Hildreth - 1991/06
Pilot with some tow experience was towing on a new glider which was a little small for him. Good launch, but at about fifty feet the glider nosed up, stalled, and the pilot released by letting go of the basetube with right hand. Glider did a wingover to the left and crashed into a field next to the tow road. Amazingly, there were minimal injuries.
Comment: This scenario has been reported numerous times. Obviously, the primary problem is the lack of pilot skill and experience in avoiding low-level, post-launch, nose-high stalls. The emphasis by countless reporters that the pilot lets go of the glider with his right hand to activate the release seems to indicate that we need a better hands-on way to release.
I know, I know, "If they would just do it right. Our current system is really okay." I'm just telling you what's going on in the real world. They are not doing it right and it's up to us to fix the problem.
Fuck you, Ryan.
On The Jack Show? It's a banning offense.Harold Wickham - 2010/08/29 00:20:06 UTC
Las Vegas
EXCELLENT Thread
Really makes you think... Thinking is good (I Think)...
And maybe the bike rider survived with minor head injury BECAUSE it cracked almost in half. Kinda like a weak link - it fails before the head it's protecting does.I use a Bell FF BMX helmet... They are light weight and durable... BUT by no means perfect... I've seen one crack almost in half... But the bike rider survived with minor head injury...
I crashed once with the cheap little half bicycle helmet... wasn't much protection, I received a concussion (could have been a lot worse)... The next day I ordered the full face... I wear it but honestly hope I never need it...
How often do you hear about people from conventional aviation discussing "timing" - and beaking?Jason Rogers - 2010/08/29 03:22:56 UTC
I've seen a bunch of replies about how such and such brand of full face helmet was being worn by so and so pilot. Common to all these stories seems to be they stalled, crashed, and were injured. How all "pilots make mistakes". In other threads we hear about "flare timing" as though flaring was something that you had to "time" or count out by the numbers rather than just flying the glider.
(How often do you hear about people "timing" opening a door or "timing" getting into bed or "timing" putting on a jumper? Never, because people judge all those things based on propreoception/kinesthesia.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-OqFjcctRUThe only exception to this "stall, crash, injury" seemed to be on another thread, pilot flying full face helmet, puts glider again and again into massive slips, so bad that surely he must have known, till glider falls apart in mid air and he's killed.
I get to watch videos like the recently posted one "Fatal hang gliding accident from Barberton, South Africa." with a pilot wearing a full face helmet who appeared to have no idea that the glider was flying dangerously slow. I don't enjoy watching those videos. I would rather that people stopped stalling and crashing.
That's a pretty good video of my short 1988/07/02 flight from the old Woodstock launch. Plowed back into the trees, fell on the rocks, was just very badly bruised but immobilized and needed to be stretchered off the mountain.
I'm not. I get all the wind noise I need with full face helmet and Cessnas and DC-10s seem to land just fine without needing to open any windows.What I'm not seeing is any stories about how Joe pilot was wearing an open face helmet with his ears uncovered and he stalled and crashed. Instead I see things like Zippy's bio flick or AP's vids where pilots with their ears uncovered perform difficult landings and stick them no step and apparently as easily as someone opening a door or putting on a jumper. These videos I enjoy watching. I want to see more of them.
No I don't think that having your ears uncovered makes it certain you will never crash. I crashed (one minute into my flying career) with my ears uncovered. So I do know it's possible.
You could have a medical condition (like a heart attack or a dislocated shoulder) that causes you to crash. However I'm completely sure that flying with your ears uncovered gives you a better, instinctive feel for the airspeed that you're flying at, and I'm also sure that makes flying safer.
